Read Online Rockies Retreat: Destination: Desire, Book 5 by Crystal Jordan - Free Book Online

everyone in earshot. She introduced their little group, and by the time they’d reached the front, she had all the particulars on every artist there. She was like sunshine, bright and warm.
    More than one of the men gave her an interested glance, and Neil couldn’t help the possessiveness that ripped through him. He stepped closer to her, a subtle message to other males. Mine. Back off.
    Yes, it was he-man and stupid, but now that he’d stopped fighting the fact that this summer wouldn’t be all work and no play, he wasn’t about to let some other guy swoop in and try to romance her.
    “Let’s sit here.” Vi trotted over to a table by the window and set her tray down.
    Neil slipped into the seat across from his daughter, and he was gratified when Laurel chose the seat next to him. Of course, that meant their legs slid together every time they shifted position, and that was a tease that made the anticipation more intense. Especially since, with his daughter there, he could do nothing about the way he burned for the woman sitting beside him. The conversation was mundane, which was somehow…nice, comfortable. They just caught up with each other about their days, chatted about what they’d like to do with the rest of the weekend.
    About halfway through the meal, Ruth popped up and slipped into the only empty chair. She looked at Laurel for a long moment. “Do you have any tattoos?”
    Laurel’s brows rose. “Why would you think that?”
    “Grandma said you might. You have neon hair. You have lots of piercings.” Ruth shrugged as if that made it a forgone conclusion that someone like Laurel would have ink.
    “I died when I saw her turquoise hair,” Vi chimed in. “Dead. Literally dead.”
    “Yeah, her streaks are on point.” Ruth bobbed her chin in a nod. “But…does she have tattoos?”
    Both girls looked at Laurel expectantly, but she shook her head.
    “Nope, sorry. Not a single tat.”
    Ruth looked a little disappointed. “I figured a painter would have cool tattoos. Like, your own painting on your skin.”
    “That would be kinda awesome,” Violet noted.
    “Sorry, girls. Never going to happen. I’m a total wimp when it comes to pain.”
    Neil cocked a brow. “You have a large number of piercings for a pain wimp.”
    “One needle and momentary pain. I can handle that. But a really amazing tattoo? That’s lots of needles for hours and hours and hours.” She shuddered, and he was fairly certain she went a little green.
    “No pain,” he murmured. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    Her dark gaze gleamed, knowing that he was talking about something else entirely than body art. “You do that.”
    He was grateful for the cover the table provided because he could imagine a whole lot of ways to provide a lot of pleasure and not a hint of pain.
    Ruth turned to Violet, apparently bored with the adults and the lack of tats. “You know there’s a rec room here in the lodge, right? It’s not, like, awesome or anything, but there’s a pool table, ping pong, darts and satellite TV.”
    Vi glanced at him, and he nodded his permission. Grinning, she swung back to Ruth. “Let’s see what’s on TV. If it’s boring stuff, we can figure out how to play pool.”
    “Sweet.”
    With that, he was summarily abandoned. He should probably be peeved or jealous, but this was the happiest Vi had been in months. Whatever made that happen was a good thing, in his book.
    But he could now pick up where his covert conversation with Laurel had left off. “I thought you didn’t mind rough, Ms. No Pain.”
    “There’s liking a man with some throw down and then there’s Fifty Shades . I’m into the first one, not the second.” She pursed her lips. “Any man tries to show me his Red Room, and I’m out of there so fast I’ll make his head spin.”
    Yep, he never knew what might come out of her mouth. He really liked that about her. “I don’t have a Red Room, or etchings, or anything else weird to show you.”
    “A